Retail shelf space is valuable. Stores display retail products on shelves so that customers can inspect the products and select the ones that they will buy. Many customers make buying decisions while they are in the store, often quite literally within arm's reach of various competing products. In order for a product to be considered by these customers, it must be visible at the moment the buying decision is made. Without adequate, prominent retail shelf space, the product is effectively invisible.
The basic unit of shelf space is a square foot of display frontal area. Conventional display shelving assemblies may often include a rectangular shape having a vertical support member, known as an “upright,” at each corner of the shelving assembly. The uprights are longitudinally connected via horizontal support members, referred to as “stretchers,” and are laterally connected via reinforcing support members. While this arrangement has served for many years, the stretchers tend to waste frontal area. Every square foot of frontal area occupied by a stretcher represents lost sales opportunities.
A need exists for a new type of retail display shelving assembly that has a greater proportion of usable frontal area as compared to conventional shelving. Desirably, the new shelving assembly has fewer stretchers. More desirably, the new shelving assembly can be installed as an after-market accessory to upgrade conventional shelving assemblies.